In the field of nonwoven web/elastic material laminates (hereinafter referred to as “elastic laminates” for simplicity) garment panels for disposable or limited use garments, some desirable qualities may include light weight, good skin feel, exterior abrasion resistance, and good flexibility dependent upon the application. Generally such elastic laminates may be made with a first nonwoven facing of desired characteristics laminated to an elastic film.
However, in the past, the ability of the nonwoven to stretch has limited the suitability of such elastic laminates for various applications because a laminate will only stretch to the extent of its least extendible layer. Various techniques have been utilized in the art in order to overcome such limitations.
For example, perforations have been applied to the nonwovens in either the machine direction or the cross direction of the nonwoven in order to try and increase the range of extendibility of the nonwovens in the elastic film laminates. U.S. Pat. No. 5,804,021 issued Sep. 8, 1998 to Abuto et al. illustrates one such teaching. It is also known to perforate the entire elastic film laminate. However, this technique leads to a great reduction in the retractive force of the elastic film.
As an alternative to perforating, necked nonwoven webs are also known wherein the nonwoven is extended in the machine direction to decrease its cross direction dimension in a process known as necking. The necked nonwoven is then laminated to an elastic material which holds the necked nonwoven at the reduced cross direction dimension until force is applied whereby the nonwoven may extend out to its pre-necked dimension. U.S. Pat. No. 4,981,747 issued Jan. 1, 1991 to Morman illustrates one such teaching, and is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Both the perforating methods and the necking methods may have limitations for the making of elastic laminates in terms of degree or direction of stretchability of the laminate, or the economy of manufacture of the elastic laminates, or both, thereby limiting the applications to which such laminates may be put.
Thus, there is need to provide further alternative methods for the production of economical elastic laminates having superior stretching abilities.